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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24728677">The Telling of a Love Story</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppy_plant/pseuds/poppy_plant'>poppy_plant</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>What We Do in the Shadows (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Confessions, Drinking, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, drug blood, story telling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:26:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24728677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppy_plant/pseuds/poppy_plant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a night out, Nandor tries his best to tell Guillermo an old story.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Guillermo/Nandor the Relentless (What We Do in the Shadows TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Telling of a Love Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you so much to kaupaint for beta-ing this for me</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the weeks following the shit that went down in the vampire theatre, there had arisen an unspoken tension between the himbo vampire and his familiar. Lazlo had come up with the clever idea that a night out on the town would be good to lighten up everyone’s spirits about the house. Guillermo was sure, after his suggestion to go to a local bar, that he just missed his time as Human Bartender Jackie Daytona. </p><p>The three vampires had gone out and gotten themselves thoroughly wasted on drug blood in just a few short hours. Unfortunately, Guillermo had only gotten himself just drunk enough to make it through a whole night out with his loud and over-emotional roommates. </p><p>They had finally gotten back to the house, just past 4:30, even with Guillermo rushing them along and continuously reminding them that the sun would be up soon. </p><p>As they walked in, Colin Robinson greeted them at the door. The three vampires managed to sneak off just in time, while poor Guillermo was sacrificed to sit through Colin’s speech about improper usages of the oxford comma that he had seen online the night prior. It took Guillermo what felt like ages to muster up the strength to pull himself away from the energy vampire’s drolling voice. </p><p>By the time Guillermo made his way back to his room, Nandor had already tossed most of his clothing aside in a pile in front of his coffin and was attempting to work his way up the steps into his coffin. Guillermo rushed over to help him before he lost his balance and toppled to the ground. Once he was securely seated in his coffin, Guillermo began picking up his master’s mess. </p><p>“You shouldn’t have left me, you know.” </p><p>Guillermo tried his best to refrain from rolling his eyes until his back was turned to hang up his master’s discarded cape. </p><p>“I know master, but Colin Robins-”</p><p>“It was my fault. Wasn’t it?” Nandor was lost deep in his drug-and-alcohol-addled thoughts, and Guillermo almost wasn’t sure if Nandor even realized he was still there.</p><p>“I knew I should’ve acted more aloof with you.”</p><p>He shouldn’t have been surprised that they were coming back to this, but it really showed how deeply Nandor had been hurt by Guillermo abandoning him. </p><p>“I couldn’t help it though and now I am acting like Mad Lad and making a fool out of myself.” </p><p>“Master, what are you talking about?” Guillermo walked over to where Nandor was sitting up in his coffin.</p><p>“Everyone knows the story, Guillermo. How do you not know it?” </p><p>“Then why don’t you tell it to me again while I brush out your hair,” Guillermo suggested in an encouraging tone, “how does that sound, master?”</p><p>“Fine.” Nandor appeared to be trying to decide where to start, and finally said, “So there was a guy… I don’t remember his name.” Great start, Nandor. “But everyone called him Mad Lad.” </p><p>“Master, when did you hear this story exactly?” Guillermo didn’t want to interrupt, but he really couldn’t help himself. </p><p>“I don’t remember, Guillermo, it was back in my homeland of Al Quolanudar and that was a very very long time ago, you know. Now stop interrupting me.”</p><p>Guillermo offered a quick apology and went back to working the brush through his master’s hair. </p><p>“So this Mad Lad had a friend whose name was Linda-"</p><p>“Master, I really don’t think that was her-”</p><p>“I am the one telling the story, not you,” Nandor quipped, turning around to poke his familiar's shoulder.</p><p>“Her name was Lydia. Mad Lad told a bunch of stories and Lydia left him. He got so mad at her that he left and walked in the desert for a while to cool down. While he was gone, she left him and had to go and die.” </p><p>Guillermo was hanging on to every word trying to work out how this Mad Lad tied back to his master. Part of him was fascinated by this look into his master’s mind, but mostly he was just trying to make sense of what Nandor was really trying to tell him. At some point in the story, he stopped brushing altogether. When he realized this, Guillermo turned to put the brush down, hoping to make it look like he had stopped intentionally. If Nandor had noticed, he hadn’t said a word. </p><p>After a few moments of silence, Guillermo spoke up, “Master, why did you tell me all of this?” he turned to look at his master but saw the vampire had already fallen asleep. Unsure what else to do, Guillermo gently closed the coffin lid and blew out the rest of the candles. As he shut the door, he still whispered a gentle ‘goodnight’ to the silent room.</p><p>What the fuck did any of that mean? Unsure where else to look, Guillermo pulled out his laptop and began searching. This wasn’t the first time he had been left to resort to extensive google searching just to figure out what exactly his roommates were trying to convey to him. </p><p>Unsure where to even begin, he tried what few things he knew from Nandor's garbled telling. The story was old, Persian, sad, and had the characters Mad Lad and Lydia… this was going to be tough. He tried tweaking a few of the searches. </p><p>Eventually, he found one that looked like a pretty good probability; The Story of Layla and Majnun. Remembering back to Nandor’s mix up with the name of his own beloved horse, John, Guillermo could see the resemblance between Layla and Linda. Skimming the story he saw that Majnun translated to ‘madman’ so that checked out. </p><p>However, Guillermo was deeply confused. Everything seemed to line up, but this was a love story. Nandor had been pretty high, but he couldn’t have been so confused that he decided to suddenly reference an ancient love story while talking about them, could he? Guillermo could only read on. </p><p>In this version (a far cry from the one Nandor had told earlier) Majnun had been madly in love with Layla and spent his days writing her love poems that he would read aloud for all to hear. His devotion led to those around them labeling him madman. Her father had forbidden their love for fear of embarrassment to their family and married Layla off. In his sorrow, Majnun ran into the wilderness and spent his days composing poems to his lost love. Layla died of a broken heart a few years later. When word got back to Majnun, he went to her grave where he also died of a broken heart. The story ended with the final poem Majnun wrote for his lost love.</p><p>As he came to the end of the story, Guillermo felt overcome with an overwhelming sense of grief for Nandor. </p><p>After a minute of silent contemplation, everything clicked together. Nandor loved him. Nandor, his master of eleven years, was so betrayed by Guillermo leaving for just a few days, that he felt, no matter how deep down, that he was Majnun. The guilt he had been feeling ever since the idea of leaving had come to him worsened tenfold at the realization of how deeply this had affected Nandor. It would take every bone in Guillermo’s body to stop himself from rushing down the hall towards his master’s room to confront him. </p><p>Fuck that. </p><p>Tossing his laptop aside with reckless abandon, Guillermo marched straight towards his master's crypt, before he could lose his courage. He had just enough sense to not slam the bedroom door against the wall as he opened it, waking everyone in the neighborhood.<br/>
Guillermo didn’t have enough control left to stop himself from throwing the lid to the coffin open. In the faint light from the candles in the hall, Guillermo could see Nandor awaken with a grimace. </p><p>“What do you think you are doing?” Nandor sleepily glared up at his familiar. Not waiting for a response he rolled onto his side muttering “Fucking guy.” </p><p>“Master, did you mean it?” Guillermo reached for Nandor’s shoulder, trying desperately to get his attention. “Nandor, wake up and tell me if you meant what you said.”</p><p>The vampire’s head shot up when his familiar used his name in that tone. “Don’t use that attitude with me, I-”</p><p>Guillermo cut him off. “Just tell me.” he was breathless and desperate. But even in his desperate state, he could see that his master was struggling to figure out just what to say. </p><p>“Yes.” Nandor’s confession was barely a whisper, but his eyes never left Guillermo’s.</p><p>With that Guillermo pulled Nandor up and their lips crashed together in a desperate kiss. </p><p>Nandor didn’t hesitate to brusquely kiss his familiar back. He fiercely wrapped his arms around his familiar’s neck and dragged him closer still. </p><p> </p><p>After a brief moment, Nandor broke away. “Never leave me again.” he growled, before pulling Guillermo close again. </p><p>As he melted into Nandor’s enthusiastic kiss, the words of Majnun’s final poem for his love repeated again and again in the back of Guillermo’s head. </p><p>-----</p><p>Now laying in his coffin with his familiar asleep with his head on his chest, Nandor leaned down and kissed his hair before reciting:</p><p>“I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla<br/>
And kiss this wall and that wall<br/>
It’s not love of the houses that has taken my heart<br/>
But of the One who dwells in those houses.”</p>
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